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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Guest Bloggr Deb Houdek Rule

Please welcome my guest blogger Deb Houdek Rule,

I am Deb Houdek Rule, a long-time devotee of Tudor history. I first
encountered the Tudors of English history at the age of eleven, when the movie Anne
of the Thousand Days finally made it to our rural Minnesota town. This
movie changed my world by opening up my realm of knowledge to this astounding
view of the past and the people in it. I was thrilled, enchanted, excited and –
yes – bitter.

Why was I bitter? I was bitter that no one had seen fit to let me know this
glorious view of history existed. Why had it been hidden? Oh, we had “history”
taught in our school, though I use even the word “taught” loosely. As I entered
seventh grade world history class, I found a horrific approach to teaching that
involved meticulously copying down a formal outline of events as read out by
the ‘teacher’. Everyone who thinks history a dull and tedious recitation of
dates and events must have had something similar inflicted upon them. Had that
been my only view of history I may never have known what truly exists in the
brilliant world of the past.

Fortunately, Anne of the Thousand Days rescued me from that bleak
and gray view of history and let me step into Tudorland. To be sure, the realm
of the Tudors is no longer my only historical interest. I am a U.S. Civil War
researcher with published research credentials and documentary appearances. I’m
also keenly interested in the Norse Viking era in Norway and Iceland. All eras
of history hold an interest, as all eras intertwine and affect each other, but
my first love has always been the era of the Tudors.

Here is what Deb Houdek Rule has coming up next.

Of All the Western Stars is a foray into the land
of the Tudors. The novel is a romance with history meeting science fiction as a
young man, Ashur, comes from five hundred years in our future to the world five
hundred years in our past. One of my objectives was to write people who have no
connection to our time and culture. Lisette comes from 500 years earlier, and
Ashur from 500 years after us.

The book, and the relationship of two people with such a
gulf between them, is a direct result of the romance I had with the man who is
now my husband. My dear Geo gave me the truth of love and romance, and our own
two thousand mile separation during our years of courting very much inspired
the yearning and desire between Lisette and Ashur.

Stars That Sing the
Requiem: Five of my science fiction short stories, several of which have
been published in various magazines and ‘Best Of’ collections. They include the
title story, “Stars That Sing the Requiem,” “Silence At the Fall of Night,”
“Terra Formation,” “Those We Left Behind,” and “Flowers on the Moon.” All
feature women in the main roles. This will be available on Kindle by February
2012.

Call of the Stars:
This is a novella and two accompanying short stories about a young man breaking
away and reaching for his own future.

Sultana: A Case For
Sabotage: This is the groundbreaking article I wrote on a case of
Confederate Secret Service operations in the Trans-Mississippi theater of the
U.S. Civil War. My research was the first in-depth study of this area and the
spies and saboteurs knows as the “Boat Burners.” I will be republishing the
article that appeared in North & South magazine, which led to my appearance on the History
Channel in “Civil War Terror.”

I have a number of other books and stories in progress.
Following up on Of All the Western Stars,
I have two sequel novels plotted.